My opinion on American presidential politics and $3 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Then again, you can dispense with my opinion and just spend the $3 to get the coffee. But if you want my opinion. … The Iowa caucuses are upon us – the first major moment in the United…
While making inroads in urban American culture and gaining a foothold in China, the industry is also innovating its products
Part 7 of our series The Business of Cognac According to the Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC), the industry’s trade association, cognac’s three largest markets are the United States (78.7 million bottles), Singapore (23.6 million bottles) and China (22.6 million bottles). Singapore has the distinction of having the largest per capita consumption of Cognac in the…
Export sales drove the development of the industry, a feature as true today as it was three centuries ago
Part 6 of our series The Business of Cognac From the very beginning, the cognac industry was dominated by cognac houses that acted as intermediaries between the producers of eau de vie and their overseas markets. Many of the first cognac houses were founded by English and Irish entrepreneurs: Jean Martell was from Jersey, while…
Part 5 of the understanding cognac series: The blend is at the heart of cognac and its formulation is the industry’s highest art form
After distillation, the new spirit is casked and moved to a warehouse where, depending on its intended use, it may age for a period of a few years to several decades. Generally speaking, cognac is aged in barrels made from oak from either the Tronçais or Limousine forests. The eau de vie is aged in…
Part 4 of the understanding cognac series: the deft hand of the master blender is critical to production
At first glance, cognac production seems straightforward. The local wine is distilled twice, aged in oak casks from a few years to decades and eventually bottled. In reality, it’s an exceedingly complex minuet where the subtle influences of terroir merge with the distiller’s art and ultimately flower under the deft hand of the master blender.…
Cognac part 3: The environment, including the chalky soil, is everything when it comes to producing the right grapes
Cognac begins as wine. Like any wine, it’s shaped in part by the environment in which it grows. Soil, aspect and climate, among other things, combine to create a unique environment, what the French call terroir. A wine, in turn, is a distinct expression of that terroir. In the Cognac region, terroir is, for the…
The traditional cognac houses have had to overcome grape plagues, the rising popularity of Scotch whisky, counterfeiting and war
Augier, the first modern cognac house, was organized in 1643. Today the brand is owned by French spirits giant Pernod Ricard. It recently relaunched the brand with a line of cognacs said to reflect the early style of the product. Over the two centuries following 1643, many of the leading cognac houses, including the big…
Part 1 of a seven-part series on the history, production and business of cognac
Cognac is a type of brandy produced in the Charente region of France, centred around the towns of Cognac and Jarnac, and stretching from the Île de Ré to the Gironde Estuary on the Atlantic coast, to Angoulême and the foothills of the Mastiff Central. The Cognac Delimited Region, the exclusive area where cognac can…
The CANZUK proposal wouldn't replace the United States as the key player in our economy, but at least it would give us more options
CANZUK International was formed to promote a European Union-like agreement for the free movement of citizens, free trade and foreign policy co-ordination between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom. The organization was created in November 2014, first as The Commonwealth Freedom of Movement Organization, by James Skinner, its executive director. According to Skinner: “The…
Language, religious laws and practices, cultural and culinary traditions all function to discourage, prevent or, at the very least, slow down assimilation
There are approximately 260 million immigrants in the world. An immigrant is defined as someone residing in a country other than their place of birth. Of that number, roughly 50 million are “illegal immigrants” who lack official authorization to reside in their host country. In 2017, roughly 3.4 per cent of the world’s population of…